Advantages and Disadvantages of Django

While writing custom web applications, many web developers prefer Python to other programming language to take advantage of its simple and expressive syntax. The simple syntax rules of Python help developers simplify development and maintenance of web applications by keeping the code base concise and readable. But Python is designed as a general purpose programming language and lacks built-in web development capabilities. The programmers need web frameworks to write custom web applications in Python rapidly and efficiently. Each programmer also has option to choose from a wide range of web frameworks for Python.

According to the usage statistics posted on various websites, a large percentage of Python developers prefer Django to other web frameworks. As an open source web framework, Django helps developers to curtail overall web application development cost. At the same time, as a batteries-included web framework, Django enables programmers to write web applications according to varying business requirements. Also, Django, like other web frameworks, has its own advantages and disadvantages. The web developers must understand the major advantages and disadvantages of Django to choose the right Python web framework.

Understanding Major Advantages of Django

Written in Python

Django is one of the web frameworks which are written in Python programming language. Hence, it becomes easier for programmers to build web applications with clean, readable, and maintainable code by taking advantage of syntax rules of Python. Also, the developers can easily curtail the development time by building custom web applications without writing additional code.

Accelerates custom web application development

Django is one of the most mature web frameworks for Python. Its design rules focus extensively on reducing web application development time. The features provided by Django enable developers to build custom web applications rapidly according to varying business requirements. A large percentage of Python programmers even opt for Django when they have to meet both goals and deadlines.

Designed as a batteries-included web framework

Django is one of the web frameworks that adopt the batteries-included approach. While developing a custom web application, Django provides the resources required by developers out of the box. It provides code for common operations like database manipulation, HTML templating, URL routing, session management, and security. The batteries included approach help developers to curtail web application development time significantly.

Supports MVC programming paradigm

Django, like other modern web frameworks, supports model-view-controller (MVC) design rule. The MVC programming paradigm allows programmers to keep a web application’s user interface (UI) and business logic layers separated. The approach further helps programmers to simplify and speed up development of large web applications by separating their user interface and business logic layers. Django further allows programmers to reuse the same business logic across multiple projects.

Compatible with major operating systems and databases

Nowadays, users access web applications on various devices and platforms. Django enhances the accessibility of web applications by supporting major operating systems like Windows, Linux and MacOS. At the same time, the ORM system provided by Django makes it easier for programmers to work with several widely used databases. They can even use the ORM system to perform common database operations and migrate from one database to another without writing additional code.

Provides robust security features

The built-in security features provided by Django help developers to protect the web applications from a variety of targeted security attacks – cross-site scripting, SQL injection and cross-site request forgery. At the same time, the web framework enhances the security of web applications by preventing common security mistakes related to Python coding.

Easy to extend and scale

Django has been evolving consistently to enable programmers to build better and modern web applications. At the same time, the Django developers can easily customize, scale, and extend the web framework by making changes to its decoupled components. They even have option to unplug or replace these decoupled components according to precise requirements of individual projects. Likewise, they can accelerate development of large and complex web applications by wiring up a wide range of components.

Supported by a large and active community

As an open source web framework for Python, Django helps developers to reduce web application development cost significantly. But it is supported by a large and active community of developers. The members of the Django community update new plug-ins and code snippets regularly to simplify web application development. The developers can easily speed up custom web application development by taking advantage of these resources uploaded by members of the Django community. The members of the community even help developers to resolve common web application development issues and problems.

Understanding Major Disadvantages of Django

Impacts performance of small web applications

The robust features provided by Django make it easier for programmers to build large and complex web applications. But the developers do not need some of these advanced features while developing small and simple web applications. The additional features even impact the performance of small web applications adversely. Hence, Python programmers have to explore ways to improve the performance of small web application while using Django.

A process lacks the capability to handle multiple requests simultaneously

Most web frameworks improve the performance of web applications by making each process handle multiple requests at a time. But Django, unlike other modern web framework, does not enable individual processes to handle multiple requests simultaneously. Hence, programmers have to explore ways to make individual processes handle multiple requests efficiently and quickly at a time.

Makes web application components tightly-coupled

Most Python programmers nowadays opt for component-based development approach to accelerate web application development and maintenance. Unlike other modern web frameworks, Python does not keep the components of a web application loosely-coupled. It even requires programmers to deploy all components of the web application at a time.

Relies heavily on the ORM system

The ORM system provided by Django makes it easier for developers to work with multiple databases and perform common database operations. But the ORM system used by the web framework lacks some of the robust features provided by other widely used ORM systems. Also, it does not enable developers to take advantage of the robust the Python SQL toolkit – SQLAlchemy – fully.

On the whole, Django helps programmers to write custom web applications in Python by providing a number of features, plug-ins, and tools. Also, the web framework has been evolving consistently to meet new web development trends. At present, Django is being used by a number of high-traffic websites including Google, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. But Django, like other web frameworks, has its own pros and cons. Hence, the Python programmers must keep in mind the precise needs of each project while evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of Django to choose the best Python web framework. They also need to implement best practices in Django development to get the best out of the frameworks.